CHICAGO -- When Daulton Varsho stepped into the batter's box in the 10th inning of Arizona's eventual 7-6 win over the Cubs on Saturday, he saw runners at first and third with one out in a tie game.
The D-backs were fresh off a ninth inning in which they had loaded the bases with no one out and failed to push a run across the plate and they could ill afford to let another opportunity slip away.
After taking the first pitch for a ball, Varsho was late on a pair of Rowan Wick fastballs. He took the next one for a ball, and Jake McCarthy, who had singled as the second batter of the inning, stole second.
"[Wick] actually blew a couple fastballs by me," Varsho said. "And literally all I told myself was I just can't get beat again, not in that situation with runners on second and third. I knew I could still stay back and hit his curveball. So that was my plan going into that last pitch there.”
Wick stuck with his fastball -- this one a 94-mph offering -- and Varsho hammered it off the wall in right. Ketel Marte, who was at third, scored easily, as did the speedy McCarthy.
That's when things got interesting.
Shortstop Andrelton Simmons' relay throw sailed wide of home plate so Varsho was able to make it into third, and he came all the way around to score when Wick had trouble tracking the ball down behind the plate after it caromed off the brick facade.
"I just remember when I was about to hit second, I'm like, 'Whoa, he's going to throw this ball home,'" Varsho said. "It was a free base going to third there, even if the catcher does field it cleanly. I just knew that I had an opportunity to get to third there and still give us a chance to score another run. When it got by him and hit the bricks I was like, 'I'm just going to keep going.' Knowing that it's kind of like a pinball machine back there with all the bricks, you just got to trust it that it's going to go your way."
That added run proved to be very important when the Cubs scored two in the bottom of the 10th to make the final score 7-6.
"Huge, huge hit," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "You know, we loaded the bases and we had a good approach and we didn't score any runs in the top of the ninth inning, right? So it was a nice rebound for us to create a little bit of traffic and that was the right guy in the right place. Daulton gets some nice extension with two strikes and does a great job executing and that's really what we needed to see. The bonus was we got the Little League home run. That's not what you expect. Good job of hitting in that case."
Lovullo referred to it as a "Little League" home run because, in truth, Varsho was only credited with a double, advancing to third on the throw to the plate and scoring on the throwing error by Simmons.
Which begs the question, "When was the last time he had an inside-the-park homer or a Little League homer?
"It's been a long time," Varsho said. "Might have been since Little League, but it's been a long time."